I Just Called To Say "Merry Christmas"...Jesus Christ

I just saw a billboard in the State of Ohio that said "I miss you saying 'Merry Christmas'. Jesus Christ. Time to push the "progressives" back behind our beliefs. Tell the next person you see, "Merry Christmas". Happy Holidays no longer does the trick. This is God's country.

Dave

Healthy Pastoral Instruction From Paul To Timothy

In 1st Timothy 6, Paul begins to instruct Timothy on how to minister to several different groups of people in the church(4 to be exact).

1. Christian slaves in vss 1 & 2


2. False Teachers in vss 3-10


3. The Pastor Himself in vss 11-16 and then again in vss 20 & 21


4. And also to the rich in vss. 17-19

• First of all he recognizes the ethical obligation of serving both the saved and the lost masters.


• Secondly, he reminds Timothy that spiritual leaders in the local church most constantly oversee what is being taught because it is easy for False Doctrine to slip in as could be seen in Acts 20:28-31 "Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears."

A. Remember some of the marks of a False Teacher :

1. Refuses to adhere to "sound instruction (more interested in ear tickling)


2. The attitude of the teacher is a second mark. Proud instead of humble - A believer who understands the truth will have a burning heart, not a big head.

B. Because of a teachers motives these False Teachers supported "that Godliness is a way of financial gain." Be careful of those who would use the office for material gain.

• Third he reminds Timothy that while it is important to care for the flock, it is also important to care for the Pastor himself. "Pay close attention to yourself and your teaching" (4:16).

A. Verse 6:11 says to "flee"... There are times when running is a mark of wisdom.

B. Verse 6:11 also says to "follow or pursue" things like

• Righteousness - personal integrity


• Godliness - Practical piety - These first two deal with character and conduct of a pastor.


• Faith - your greatest ability is dependability.


• Love - sacrifices for others - seeks to give, not gain.


• Perseverance - to endure...Paul continues to encourage Timothy to "stick with it"


• Gentleness - Courageous endurance without meekness could make a person a tyrant.

C. Fight is the "catch phrase" in verse 6:12 and the verb here means "keep on fighting". We get our english word "agonize" here.

• Finally, the fourth warning that Paul gives to Timothy is to be on the lookout for the motivatios of the rich.

Pastors have a "near impossible" obligation to God to take care of the flock. The Bible says in 2 John 7 & 8 that "...many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves, that you might not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward."

For all of you who "shepard a flock" I pray for your strength and integrity. We are coming to a place in the world where it is starting to look like more and more Biblical Prophecy is taking place and we need to be on our guard.

God bless you all,

Dave

Apprising Ministries - awakening to the light of scripture

WORST EASTER SERMON OF 2009 AWARD WINNER ANNOUNCED.Just click on title to go to this article and a youtube is included.

Dave

Interview with Larry King and Joel Osteen!

Just click on title for youtube video. If you want to be aware of false prophets, you want to watch this short video.

Dave

CHURCH GROWTH MOVEMENT - REVIVAL OR APOSTASY?

This article should make your "skin crawl"

Dave

By Debbie O'Hara
October 21, 2003
NewsWithViews.com

A wave is sweeping the world that many Christians are calling Revival. This is the biggest change to take place in the church since the days of the Protestant Reformation. Tens of thousands of pastors and church leaders in America have jumped onto the bandwagon of a Church Growth Movement that seems to be reaching the masses for Christ. Can this be the real thing? Just when we thought America as we knew it was coming to an end did we really manage to find a way to pick ourselves up and turn back to the Living God?

What are the methods being used to grow the church? Are they really God's methods or have churches compromised with the world and used techniques common to the New Age rather than to the Bible? As Christian author and preacher John McArthur said, "Contemporary evangelism has been beguiled and sabotaged by a ruinous lack of confidence in God's word… They have accepted the notion that scripture does not contain all we need to minister in these complex times. So they turn to human expertise in the fields of psychology, business, government, politics, entertainment, or whatever they think might supply some recipe for success that's lacking in scripture."

Since we are using human expertise to grow the church rather than relying on what God's Word tells us, it is very important to know who some of these experts are who are big in the growth movement. Although there are numerous people, for the sake of space I am only going to go into three of the biggest and most well known - Dr. Robert Schuller of the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, CA., Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Community Church in Lake Forest, CA and Pastor Bill Hybels of Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, (near Chicago) Illinois.

Pastor Schuller does not preach biblically, but preaches a man-centered religion of self-esteem and self-love. (Remember the humanist government schools doing the same thing?) He believes that sin is nothing more than a lack of self-esteem and that the greatest sin is to teach a person that he/she is unworthy. In the October 5, 1984 "Christianity Today" he wrote, " I don't think anything has been done in the name of Christ and under the banner of Christianity that has proven more destructive to human personality and, hence counterproductive to the evangelism enterprise than the often crude, uncouth, and unchristian strategy of attempting to make people aware of their lost and sinful condition." He believes in positive only sermons so that people always feel good about themselves. The problem is that the positive Jesus he sends a message about is not the Jesus of the Bible. The Bible defines sin as rebellion against God, but Schuller finds that insulting. To him, Jesus was Self-Esteem Incarnate. Hell is not a place of eternal torment to Schuller but just merely a loss of self-esteem. I challenge anyone to find that in the Bible! Schuller's self-esteem message is actually more dangerous than that of the government schools because his message is masked in religious speak to mislead the masses. Is it any wonder there is no fear of God today and everyone does what is right in his/her own eyes?

Another very disturbing fact about Schuller is his longtime friendship with former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. It seems that both Schuller and Gorbachev worship the same Jesus. Back in October 2000 Gorbachev was a guest speaker at the Crystal Cathedral. Why would a church of Christ have a self-avowed Communist as a speaker? Gorbachev is the former Soviet butcher of Afghanistan. In trying to force the Afghans under Communism, gasoline was poured over those poor souls and they were burned alive. Land mines were booby-trapped to look like favorite toys and limbs were blown off of little children. God knows why this man is revered by Schuller and many others in the western world.

In Nov. 1987 that same Gorbachev that Schuller so highly esteems said in a speech at the 70th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, " In October 1917, we parted with the Old World, rejecting it once and for all. We are moving toward a new world, the world of Communism. We shall never turn off that road." He also went on to say that the changes in the Soviet Union were for cosmetic purposes and that their aim was to disarm the Americans and let them fall asleep. According to the New York Times of Dec. 26, 1989, Gorbachev said, " I am a Communist, a convinced Communist. For some that may be a fantasy. But for me it is my main goal." Notice this comment was made just after the fall of the Berlin Wall. In his own words Gorbachev states that we are moving toward world Communism and that Communism is his main goal. It is more than interesting that Dr. Schuller was the first person allowed to preach a sermon on Channel One, a channel committed to atheism in the former USSR. Communism has nothing to fear from the Jesus of Schuller.

Pastor Bill Hybels of the megachurch Willow Creek Community near Chicago has about 15,000 people attending church each Sunday. Hybels was greatly influenced by Dr. Schuller. Schuller helped fundraise for Hybels in the early days and believes that Hybels took the church growth movement farther than he himself was able to do. Willow Creek is a "seeker sensitive" church where like Schuller, there is no preaching against sin. People are not called on to repent but are entertained by rock music, drama and other types of media. There is no organ, piano, or hymnbooks with the old songs of the Christian faith. The New Age Christianity is actually a dressed up form of Humanism. The main focus is for people to enjoy coming to church and getting their "felt needs" met, not to be convicted of their sins. You might not win many souls to Christ, but it is a great way to grow a church. Forget what God wants - give the consumers what they want and they will be banging on the doors.

Saddleback Community Church pastored by Rick Warren is another megachurch based on the same philosophy as Schuller and Hybels. All three of these men got their churches growing by following the expertise and marketing techniques of Peter Drucker, a humanist who believes according to the Oct 1998 issue of Forbes Magazine that "The social universe has no "natural laws" as the physical sciences do. It is thus subject to continuous change" (page 154). The guy believes in no moral absolutes and yet these pastors are basing their church growth movement on Drucker's marketing techniques! Just like big business these three pastors surveyed the consumers they wanted (non-churched people in their communities) to figure out their "felt needs"so that the church could respond to them. Their Sunday morning services in turn are geared toward non-believers. Forget about God's purpose for the church, which is to edify the saints. Since doctrine divides, only the love of God is preached. Forget about His holiness and judgement. These guys want "seeker sensitive" non-threatening churches to appeal to these non-believers, so if the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ makes them feel guilty then let's just throw it out! After all we need to reach the market with what the consumer wants. Maybe that is why Pastor Bill Hybels along with Pastor Rick Warren spoke at a conference at Schuller's Crystal Cathedral where there were homosexual pastors in training. I guess this must be one of those changing moral values that our expert Peter Drucker was talking about.

While more and more people are becoming familiar with what is happening in schools (Goals 2000) and in business (Total Quality Management or TQM), they haven't caught on yet that the same thing is happening in churches (Church Growth Movement or CGM). While in the workplace and the government schools we have given up truth in the name of tolerance and diversity, in the church we are giving up truth for the sake of "unity".

Just like in government schools, didactic teaching is out. Instead of teachers who teach facts, you have facilitators to keep the dialogue going. Little do people realize that a technique called the Hegelian Dialectic is being used on them to get rid of the old fashioned notion of truth. (Find out about the Hegelian Dialectic at www.newswithviews.com/BeritKjos/kjos.htm ) Francis Schaeffer, the foremost evangelical thinker of our time, spent the last years of his life warning about bringing this dialectical process that had already permeated all of our other institutions into the church. Once people have been run through this process, they can no longer discern truth. It is the brainwashing process used by those that follow the Marxist/Communist philosophy to control their people. This technique can only be used in a group and it needs to be used on people with different sets of beliefs. Isn't it interesting that churches are working more in small groups now? Since the church is being geared toward unbelievers, it is really the believers that are being changed by use of this technique. Divisiveness is not allowed. Consensus is the goal.

Humanists believe that they can bring peace on earth without God. The experts just need to control the human environment and take care of all human needs. (In other words, Communism) Sounds a lot like the new church growth movement doesn't it - focusing on the "felt needs" of people rather than relying on the sufficiency of God's word? What is communism/socialism but focusing on the people group? No divisiveness allowed and no room for the individual. Notice how our kids in schools are working more and more in groups and getting group grades. They have to perform community service in order to graduate and to get into the best colleges. Now community service, not serving God, is the largest part of being churched, too. Sounds a little like the days of Hitler and Stalin doesn't it? Everyone must serve the state.

What more clever way can there be to get the American people to accept Communism than to send them out into their communities to work for free and to have them think they are doing it for God? This movement is all about changing the beliefs and behavior of Christians to move them into that New World Communism that Mikhail Gorbachev was talking about.

While I do believe that there are many good Christians caught up in this movement, they are deceived and they need to repent and get out of it. Maybe it is time to start asking some tough questions of your church leaders to find out where they stand in regard to this humanist philosophy that has swept through our churches like a wild fire. Is it possible that this movement that many call revival is really the end times church of apostasy that we were warned about in Revelation?

© 2003 Debbie O'Hara - All Rights Reserved



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Debbie O'Hara is a homeschooler and avid reader. She has held a position in management in the aerospace industry in Southern California. She left the business world to become a full time mother. Doing the research necessary to provide a comprehensive homeschool curriculum led her to a keen interest in the direction of our country. She and her children are active in the political process both locally and nationally. She is a wife and mother of eight children. Debbie is a contributing writer to www.NewsWithViews.com. E-Mail: ohara9@cox.net

What kind of message is The Message?

Because this post is in "table" format it would not show up good on the blog but is an extremely important post. It will better assist you in understanding the difference between God's Holy Bible and The Message. Please click on title to read.

Dave

Calvary Chapel and Purpose Driven

Calvary Chapel and Purpose Driven

by Roger Oakland

For printer friendly version, please click here

Since Rick Warren’s best selling Purpose Driven book and other related products were pulled from Calvary Distribution, [1] a number of people have contacted me asking for an explanation. My answer has been quite simple - contact someone at Calvary Distribution and ask them for the answer.

While I do speak at many different Calvary Chapels throughout the USA and around the world, I am not involved in the decisions that the leaders of Calvary Chapel make. Basically, I am a missionary to the world, based in southern California, affiliated with the Calvary Chapel movement. The ministry of Understand The Times is a discernment ministry, and I am dedicated to warning people about current trends within Christianity which lead believers and non believers away from the truth of God’s Word. Other than warning people, there is not much else I can do.

My Background

I consider Pastor Chuck Smith to be my own pastor, and I attend Calvary Costa Mesa when I am in southern California. I have been familiar with the Calvary Chapel movement since June of 1981 when I was first invited as a guest speaker at Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa. Since 1988 the ministry of Understand The Times has been affiliated with Calvary Chapel movement and I have spoken at hundreds of churches and conferences by invitation of Calvary Chapel pastors worldwide

Therefore, my 25 years of experience within the Calvary Chapel movement has provided the opportunity for me to be able to make observations about the Calvary Chapel movement. While this movement is made up of individuals who have various ideas (some are even supportive of Purpose Driven), the leader, Pastor Chuck Smith has made it clear on several occasions that he does not agree with the direction the Purpose Driven movement is headed.

Over the past year or so, it should have been obvious to anyone listening to messages by Pastor Chuck Smith, Sr. that he has expressed serious concerns about the Purpose Driven church growth movement. On numerous occasions he made the point that the Calvary way, was not the Purpose Driven way. He made it clear that healthy church growth should be centered on the teaching of the Word of God and not on methods derived by human effort. From the beginning of the Calvary Chapel movement, Chuck has emphasized being “spirit led” rather than being motivated by a humanistic agenda put in place by church growth experts.

Further, pastors who attended the nation-wide Calvary Chapel Pastor’s Conferences held at Murrieta, California in either 2005 or 2006 would have heard Pastor Chuck explain in detail that Calvary Chapel pastors are not to be “Purpose Driven”. While there were some in attendance who were leaning towards Purpose Driven methods, Pastor Chuck emphasized Calvary Chapel was not going in that direction.

Distribution of “Purpose Driven” at Calvary Distribution

Based on what I have just stated, it was surprising to me that Calvary Distribution ever distributed Rick Warren’s “Purpose Driven” books and associated products in the first place. The fact that a decision was made to remove these materials from Calvary Distribution seemed logical based on my knowledge of what Calvary Chapel stands for and what Rick Warren’s “Purpose Driven” church growth philosophy represents.

As I stated in the introduction of this commentary, although I have no authority to make comments on behalf of Chuck Smith, Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, or Calvary Distribution, I am willing to go on record and make comments regarding my perspective on why I believe Calvary Distribution pulled the Rick Warren materials. Following are four of my reasons:

1. Eschatology

The Calvary Chapel view of the future compared to the “Purpose Driven” view of the future is as different as day and night. One of the distinctives of the Calvary movement is a focus on the imminent return of Jesus Christ. Pastor Chuck has always been known for an emphasis on warning Christians to be alert and ready for the return of Jesus. He teaches that the Kingdom of God will be established only when Jesus Christ returns to this planet. He also emphasizes that the time period before the return of Jesus here on earth will be “as it was in the days of Noah.” [2] From this perspective, the world actually gets worse and worse, not better and better.

Rick Warren’s view of the present and the future is different from Chuck Smith’s. Warren encourages his followers to ignore Bible prophecy and spend their time and energy on the here and now, in order to establish a man made social plan (P.E.A.C.E. Plan) that will make planet earth a better place for everyone. With regards to the importance of Bible prophecy, Rick Warren has stated:

When the disciples wanted to talk about prophecy, Jesus quickly switched the conversation to evangelism. He wanted them to concentrate on their mission to the world. He said in essence, "The details of my return are none of your business. What is your business is the mission I have given you. Focus on that!"



Speculating on the exact timing of Christ's return is futile, because Jesus said, "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." Since Jesus said he didn't know the day or hour, why should you try to figure it out" What we do know for sure is this: Jesus will not return until everyone God wants to hear the Good News has heard it. Jesus said, "The Good News about God's kingdom will be preached in all the world, to every nation. Then the end will come." If you want Jesus to come back sooner, focus on fulfilling your mission, not figuring out prophecy. [3]

Further, Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven P.E.A.C.E. Plan is part of a plan that is intended to establish the Kingdom of God here on earth before Jesus returns. This Kingdom depends on human effort. He is willing to work with governments (Rwanda [4]), political leaders (King of Jordan [5]), the United Nations (Inter-religious gatherings [6]) and even the Roman Catholic Church [7].

In April of 2005, Rick Warren, speaking to 25,000 in attendance at Anaheim Stadium, encouraged his Purpose Driven supporters to partner with him to usher in the Kingdom of God on planet earth, right now. Quoting from his speech:

I stand before you confidently right now and say to you that God is going to use you to change the world. Some will say, “That's impossible,” but I heard that line 25 years ago, and God took seven people and started Saddleback Church. Now we have a new vision and a whole lot more people to start with. The great evangelist Dwight L. Moody said, “The world has yet to see what God can do with a man fully consecrated to him.” I'm looking at a stadium full of people who are telling God they will do whatever it takes to establish God's Kingdom 'on earth as it is in heaven. [8]

It is important to understand that this type of teaching that Rick Warren heavily promotes is very similar to New Age teachings that say the endtimes, according to the book of Revelation, does not have to happen if enough people come together, realize their unity with each other and with God, and strive towards global peace.

2. The Emerging Church

Pastor Chuck has been very outspoken regarding his concerns about the Emerging Church. In fact in May of 2006, he sent out a letter to all Calvary Chapel pastors stating that no Calvary Chapel pastor heading down the Emerging Church road movement would be permitted to use the name of Calvary Chapel. [9] In this statement he wrote:

We have great problems with the use of icons to give them (Emerging Church) a sense of God or the presence of God. If they want to have a tie with the historicity of the church, why not go back to the church in Acts, which seems to devoid of incense, candles, robes etc., but was filled with the Spirit. [10]

The letter was not only sent out to Calvary pastors to clarify the Calvary Chapel position, it was also followed up by action. Several Calvary Chapels that were once on the list of Calvary Chapel Fellowships have been removed from the list.

On the other hand, it can be documented that Rick Warren’s view of the Emergent Church is different than Chuck Smith’s view. Warren has endorsed the Emerging Church movement. He wrote a foreword for a book written by Dan Kimball titled The Emerging Church: Vintage Christianity for New Generations (Kimball is a leader in the movement). Warren stated:

This book is a wonderful, detailed example of what a purpose-driven church can look like in a postmodern world. My friend Dan Kimball writes passionately, with a deep desire to reach the emerging generation and culture. While my book The Purpose-Driven Church explained what the church is called to do, Dan’s book explains how to do it with the cultural creatives who think and feel in postmodern terms. You need to pay attention to him because times are changing. [11]

Warren’s comments are self-explanatory. For an overview of the ideas promoted by Dan Kimball that characterize the Emerging Church (also known as “Vintage Christianity”) it would be helpful to read a previous commentary I have written posted at http://www.understandthetimes.org/commentary/c29.shtml .

3. Contemplative Prayer and Christian Mysticism

The primary distinctive of the Calvary Chapel movement has always been based on the systematic teaching of the Word of God. This is clearly what Pastor Chuck has emphasized and continues to emphasize. While there have been those in the movement in the past who have moved away from the Word of God towards the promotion of experiences in God’s name, Pastor Chuck has made it clear, this will not be tolerated.

For example, the Calvary Chapel-Vineyard split occurred over this very issue in 1982. At this time Pastor Chuck warned of moving towards an experienced-based Christianity that leads followers into dangerous spiritual territory.

Further, Pastor Chuck in his Parson to Parson letter [12] to pastors mentioned his concern with contemplative practices and Eastern mysticism that is an earmark of the Emerging Church. In his statement he asked the question:

Should we look to Eastern religions with their practices or meditation through Yoga and special breathing techniques or repeating a mantra to hear God speak to us? If this is needed to enhance our communication with God, why do you suppose that God did not give us implicit instructions in the Scriptures to give us methods to hear His voice? [13]

Rick Warren has clearly indicated that he is willing to investigate the ideas and methods being promoted for spiritual reformation and transformation that have eastern religious roots. These include the beliefs promoted by the proponents of contemplative prayer and other mystical techniques that are supposed to get the participant “closer to God.”

Ray Yungen, in his book A Time of Departing documents Warren’s views in detail. I would suggest that readers of this commentary read a chapter from A Time of Departing titled “America’s Pastor” [14] in order to see the connection between the Purpose Driven world-view and the contemplative prayer agenda.

One of the major leaders of contemplative prayer is Richard Foster, the founder of Renovare. Rick Warren spoke very clearly of his admiration for Richard Foster’s spirituality in his first book, Purpose Driven Church when he stated that the “spiritual formation movement” (of which he named Foster as a key player) was needed and vital to the church. Lighthouse Trails Publishing has documented many instances where Saddleback pastors and staff have shown their strong support for the practice of contemplative prayer. [15]

It would seem to me that “Purpose Driven” mixed together with a touch of mysticism could be considered a recipe for spiritual disaster. That is especially true in these days when so many Christians are willing to embrace eastern mystical practices like “yoga” and other methods to pursue a state of silence or quietness in order to get into an altered state of consciousness. This is not the message that Pastor Chuck Smith or Calvary Distribution would want to promote.

4. Church Growth Philosophy

The Calvary Chapel movement has been under the scrutiny of church growth experts from the beginning. Some have suggested it was the music that caused Calvary Chapel to grow. Others said it was the way Pastor Chuck dressed. Some claimed the movement grew because of the Word For Today radio programs. One church growth expert claimed the reason Chuck Smith and the Calvary Chapel movement was so successful was because of his “good radio voice.”

Pastor Chuck, when asked why the movement has grown always has given the credit to the Holy Spirit. He has stated on numerous occasions that it is not by human effort or cleverly designed plans dependent of church growth experts.

On the other hand, Rick Warren’s church growth plan has been carefully designed and orchestrated. Purpose Driven is part of a much bigger church growth plan, one that can be traced back to Peter Drucker. [16]

Further, it is no secret that Purpose Driven is a cousin of Robert Schuller’s “possibility thinking” and Bill Hybel’s “seeker-friendly” approach. [17] Warren did not stumble on his success plan for growth by chance. He has a number of advisors besides Drucker who also have a plan to “win the world” by “whatever means it takes.” We will discuss this in a future article.

Conclusion

Why did Calvary Distribution remove Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven books and related materials from their distribution? I believe these four reasons I have discussed are reasonable and a valid answer to that question:

Differences in Eschatology

Differences with regard to the Emerging Church

Differences with regard to contemplative prayer and mysticism

Differences with regard to church growth principles and beliefs

Christianity has always been made up of strong leaders who take different positions. In this case we see two well-known contemporary leaders going in two different directions.

I also know that many Calvary Chapel pastors approved the decision and applauded Calvary Distribution when the Rick Warren materials were no longer being distributed.

Because there are some Calvary pastors who strongly disagree with this decision, it is very possible that in the future there will be a split of the Calvary Chapel movement. The pressures on young pastors today to conform to the current trends for the sake of having a successful big church are ever increasing.

In my view, the stand Pastor Chuck Smith made to stay with the Word of God and warn the flock about the imminent return of Jesus was biblical and the correct decision. I personally believe that those who go down the road of Purpose Driven will become less and less discerning regarding the end times scenario that is currently unfolding, which clearly reveals that Jesus may be soon returning.

I also believe that it won’t be very long before Rick Warren and his Purpose Driven theology will join hands with Roman Catholicism so that together they may work toward their common goal of ushering in the “Kingdom of God.”

As long as God gives me breath, I will keep you informed.

Roger Oakland







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[1] http://www.calvaryd.org/assets/uploads/RecallonStorms.pdf

[2] Matthew 24:37

[3] Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, pg 286, 286 emphasis mine

[4] http://www.christianitytoday.com/ctmag/special/rickwarren.html

[5] http://washingtontimes.com/national/20060202-111835-3132r.htm

[6] www.christianpost.com/article/society/section/rick.warren.speaks.about.purpose.at.united.nations/1.htm

[7] http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/pewreligion.htm

[8] http://www.biblicalrecorder.org/content/news/2005/4_19_2005/ne190405rick.shtml emphasis added

[9] http://www3.calvarychapel.com/ccof2/parsontoparson.pdf

[10] Ibid.

[11] Dan Kimball, The Emerging Church: Vintage Christianity for the New Generation, Zondervan, 2003, page 7 emphasis mine

[12] http://www3.calvarychapel.com/ccof2/parsontoparson.pdf

[13] Ibid.

[14] Ray Yungen, Time of Departing:How Ancient Mystical Practices are Uniting Christians with the World’s Religions, 2nd Edition, 2006, Lighthouse Trails Publishing, Silverton, OR, pages 142-170

[15] http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/rw226article.htm

[16] http://www.newswithviews.com/Ohara/debbie13.htm

[17] Ibid.

What is contemplative spirituality?

What is contemplative spirituality?


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Question: "What is contemplative spirituality?"

Answer: Contemplative spirituality is an extremely dangerous practice for any person who desires to live a biblical, God-centered life. It is most commonly associated with the emerging church movement, which is riddled with false teachings. It is also used by many different groups that have little, if any, connection with Christianity.

In practice, contemplative spirituality is primarily centered on meditation, although not meditation with a biblical perspective. Passages such as Joshua 1:8 actually exhort us to meditate: “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” Notice what the focus of meditation should be—the Word of God. Contemplative spirituality-driven meditation focuses on nothing, literally. A practitioner is exhorted to completely empty his/her mind, to just “be.” Supposedly, this helps one to open up to a greater spiritual experience. However, we are exhorted in Scripture to transform our minds to that of Christ's, to have His mind. Emptying our minds is contrary to such active, conscious transformation.

Contemplative spirituality also encourages the pursuit of a mystical experience with God. Mysticism is the belief that knowledge of God, spiritual truth, and ultimate reality can be gained through subjective experience. This emphasis on experiential knowledge erodes the authority of Scripture. We know God according to His Word. “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). God's Word is complete. There is no reason to believe that God adds additional teachings or truths to His Word through mystical experiences. Instead, our faith and what we know about God is based on fact.

The website for the Center for Contemplative Spirituality sums it up well: “We come from a variety of secular and religious backgrounds and we each seek to enrich our journey through spiritual practice and study of the world's great spiritual traditions. We desire to draw closer to the loving Spirit which pervades all creation and which inspires our compassion for all beings.” There is absolutely nothing biblical about such goals. Studying the world’s “spiritual traditions” is an exercise in futility because any spiritual tradition other than that which exalts Christ is falsehood. The only way to draw closer to God is through the path He has ordained—Jesus Christ and the Word.

Recommended Resource: The Truth War: Fighting for Certainty in an Age of Deception by John MacArthur.

What is Contemplative Spirituality/Why So Dangerous?

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Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society, Autumn 1997 -- Volume 10:19


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What is Contemplative Spirituality
and Why is It Dangerous?
A Review of Brennan Manning's
The Signature of Jesus


John Caddock
Winchester, OR


The Never-Ending Review
Little did I know when I began to read The Signature of Jesus the time and effort that would be involved in understanding it. I am not a theologian by training. My background is in technical management in electronic component manufacturing. However, I stumbled onto something that I became convinced was very dangerous and little understood.

One reading was not enough for me to understand The Signature of Jesus. I found that it was like reading a book in a foreign language. I read many new expressions like contemplative prayer, centering prayer, centering down, paschal spirituality, the discipline of the secret, contemplative spirituality, celebrating the darkness, mineralization, the Mineral Man, practicing the presence, the interior life, intimacy with Abba, the uncloistered contemplative life, inner integration, yielding to the Center, the bridge of faith, notional knowledge, contemporary spiritual masters, masters of the interior life, shadow self, false self, mysterium tremendum, existential experience, and the Abba experience.1

I also encountered many writers I have never read before, including Kasemann, Burghardt, Merton, Van Breeman, Brueggemann, Moltmann, Nouwen, Küng, Steindl-Rast, Rahner, Bonhoeffer, Kierkegaard, and Camus.

I had to read the book three separate times before I was confident that I understood what Manning was saying. I even read it a fourth time for good measure.

Reading this book led me to read a number of other books and articles by and about leading mystics/contemplatives. I learned about the heart of Manning's message, centering prayer.

Ultimately I felt I had to meet the man. I attended one conference he conducted. In addition, I purchased the tapes of another conference he conducted and pored over them.

Altogether I spent hundreds of hours trying to understand what Manning is saying. Why did I do this? Well, I began this study because three Free Grace Christian leaders whom I know endorsed Brennan Manning in his earlier book, The Ragamuffin Gospel. These men are bright, well educated, experienced in ministry, and heads of major works. Yet I had read a cautionary review of that book,2 and I wanted to read Manning for myself.

I continued the study because what I found frightened me and because I felt others needed to be warned. The teachings of Manning are very dangerous.

There is a seductive quality to his writings. He reports grappling with and overcoming fear, guilt, and psychological hang-ups and difficulties, including alcoholism. He gives the impression that he has a very intimate relationship with God and that he has insight to a superspirituality. He regularly meditates and reports having many visions and encounters with God. He is an extremely gifted writer who is able to tug at the emotions of the reader while at the same time introducing ideas that the reader would immediately reject if they were not cloaked under this emotional blanket.

He promises readers that if they apply his teaching they too will gain this same intimacy with God as well as freedom from fear, guilt, and psychological hang-ups and difficulties. This is very attractive. Manning's prescription to achieve this is not by traditional prayer and by the reading and application of the Bible. Rather, the means to this end is a mixture of Eastern mysticism, psychology, the New Age Movement, liberation theology, Catholicism, and Protestantism.3 This mixture will not deliver intimacy with God. It no doubt will lead to special feelings and experiences. Those practicing Manning's methods will likely feel closer to God. However, in the process they will actually move away from Him as a result of a counterfeit spirituality.

The Ragamuffin Mystic Monk
Speaking at a conference, Brennan Manning summed up his view of the essence of his ministry and the core of the good news: "In healing our image of God, Jesus frees us of fear of the Father and dislike of ourselves." This is a radical departure from the good news of Jesus Christ. Eternal life and the forgiveness of sins is replaced with psychological healing.

Ordained a Franciscan priest, Manning earned degrees in philosophy and theology. He had training with a monastic order which included seven months of isolation in a desert cave. Years later, after a collapse into alcoholism, he shifted direction and focused on writing and speaking. He became persona non grata among the Roman Catholic hierarchy as a result of his marriage in 1982. He now writes and speaks mainly to Protestant audiences. It is important to note that Manning is well received, even by some Free Grace people.

The Signature of Jesus was first published in 1988. The current revised edition was published in 1996 by Multnomah Books.4

Manning is more widely known for his bestseller published in 1990, The Ragamuffin Gospel.5 Its first few chapters are emotionally gripping as he writes about God's forgiving nature and His love for the unworthy. The book promotes the freeness of God's love, but falls short because it does not present a clear gospel. It also leaves many open questions about his views. Manning's book, The Signature of Jesus, answers many of those questions, and raises a number of additional ones.

What Is Contemplative Spirituality?
The Signature of Jesus is actually a primer on what Manning calls paschal spirituality, which is supposedly, but not actually, spirituality centered on the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. (Chapter 6 is entitled "Paschal Spirituality.") Another name for this, a more accurate one, is contemplative spirituality. Indeed, one entire chapter is a call to "Celebrate the Darkness" (pp. 137-58)6 and another teaches about centering prayer, an Eastern Religion mind-emptying meditation technique (pp. 209-227). The book has a number of personal stories from Manning where he claims that Jesus or God the Father appeared to him, touched him, and spoke to him.

Manning indicates that The Signature of Jesus is about radical discipleship and authentic faith. Radical discipleship sounds good. So does authentic faith. Unfortunately, the book isn't about following Jesus Christ or having faith in Him. It is about following "the masters of the interior life" (pp. 94, 219).

In Manning's view many Christians have been raised in a devotional spirituality which focuses "more on behavior than on consciousnesson doing God's will and performing the devotional acts that please him than on experiencing God as God truly is" (p. 216). Contemplative spirituality, on the other hand, "emphasize[s] the need for a change in consciousness, a new way of seeing God, others, self, and the world" (p. 216) which leads to a deeper knowledge of God.

Thus Manning sets up a battle between two views of the Christian life. One he paints as traditional, cold, intellectual, ritualistic, unemotional, unloving, uncaring, insensitive, unattractive, and obsessive. The other he presents as new, warm, free, emotional, loving, caring, sensitive, attractive, and liberating. While he acknowledges that there is a place for Bible study and corporate worship, he argues that the key is "practicing the presence" through a special form of prayer we will discuss more fully later, centering prayer. Manning writes,

Herein lies the secret, I believe, of the inner life of Jesus. Christ's communion with Abba in the inner sanctuary of His soul transformed His vision of reality, enabling Him to perceive God's love and care behind the complexities of life. Practicing the presence helps us to discern the providence of God at work especially in those dark hours when the signature of Jesus is being traced in our flesh. (You may wish to try it right now. Lower the book, center down, and offer yourself to the indwelling God.)7

Daily devotions consisting of Bible study, meditation, memorization, and traditional prayers are of limited importance in the contemplative spirituality of Manning. A type of prayer derived from Eastern mysticism is what is really important. Practice the presence. Center down. What is really needed is freeing the mind and having an existential experience with God.

Contemplative spirituality is the teaching that spiritual growth and true spirituality occur by contemplation not of Scripture or even of scriptural themes, but contemplation of God through emptying your mind.

The Origins of Contemplative Spirituality
This movement began in the Roman Catholic Church, where there has been an important shift over the last thirty years. Devotional spirituality is a pejorative term coined by some within Roman Catholicism who reacted against the prewar, pre-Vatican II Church, with a devotion to saints, doctrine, frequent reception of the sacraments, and approved devotional practices.

Some Roman Catholics began to advocate the new theology8 which Francis Schaeffer warned of in his classic The God Who is There.9 Schaeffer pointed to Hans Küng and Karl Rahner (both influential in shaping Manning's views) and Tielhard de Chardin as the leading progressive thinkers who were following in the path of Heidegger, the existentialist philosopher. To the new theology, language is always a matter of personal interpretation and therefore the language of the Bible can be used as a vehicle fo continuous existetial experiences. A given verse a thousands of different interpretations as each person has an encounter with God.

Schaeffer warned that if the "progressives" consolidated their position within the Roman Catholic Church, they would have both its organization and linguistic continuity at their disposal. They would then be in the position of supplying society with an endless series of religiously motivated "arbitrary absolutes" applying any sociological or psychological theory at their discretion.

Schaeffer predicted that the new theology would lead to mysticism. Karl Rahner showed the truth in Schaeffer's prediction when he wrote "The Christian of the future will be a mystic or he or she will not exist at all...By mysticism we mean a genuine experience of God emerging from the very heart of our existence."10 But Schaeffer had a different definition of mysticism than Rahner's: "Mysticism is nothing more than a faith contrary to rationality, deprived of content and incapable of communication. You can bear witness to it but you cannot discuss it."11

Since Schaeffer's remarks thirty years ago, there has been a growing interest in contemplative spirituality. In an article titled "The Changing State of Spirituality" in the November 27, 1993 issue of America, a Roman Catholic Journal, some observations were made about the trend in books being published. In 1968, the top ten Roman Catholic books were predominantly from authors attempting to apply the new theology to spirituality. In 1993, the top ten were predominantly from authors attempting to apply Eastern religious teachings as well as psychology to spirituality. The new theology is free, as Schaeffer warned it would be, to draw upon any teaching in order to achieve its goals.

The Contemplatives
In The Signature of Jesus, Manning quotes Catholic saints, medieval mystics, and monks, including Charles deFoucauld, Francis DeSales, Meister Ekhart, Teresa of Avila, and Catherine of Siena. The most frequently cited sources are part of the community of Roman Catholic clergy who are instrumental in promoting modern contemplative spirituality: Thomas Merton, Anthony DeMello, William Shannon, Henri Nouwen, Peter Van Breemen, William Reiser, David Steindl-Rast, and Basil Pennington. Although the word contemplation brings to mind a monastic life dedicated to pence and cloistered within the walls of the monastery, not so with these New Monks.12

The New Monks critique the current state of Christianity by arguing that since God is holy and is a "wholly other," He cannot be defined by systems of doctrine. They maintain that western rationalism has crushed the knowledge of God and that we must return to a more intuitively received knowledge. We must move beyond the intellect, beyond doctrine, and beyond words to a deeper union with God. Their writings contain rather complex discussions on the nature of being and share common themes of universality, mystical union with God through contemplation (wordless "prayer"), social justice, and non-violence.

The New Monks maintain that all religions should immerse themselves in the myths of their tradition because there is power in the "collective unconscious"13 of the tradition to shape the experience of its followers. So, for the New Monk, the use of biblical language has great power within the Christian tradition. For example, the call to salvation14 is actually a call to a transformation of consciousness to be psychologically awakened to the unity and oneness of all creation. For the New Monks all religions at their deepest mystical level use myth and symbol to say the same thing.

The New Monks believe we are born into a duality between self (the ego) and oneness (being). The ego is driven by fear of death and alienation, and is the source of all suffering and woundedness. The fall, a mythical story, has a deeper more "universal truth," which is intended to shed light on present human experience. We have fallen from oneness and harmony of paradise into alienation and a sense of separation. We must simply realize that the gulf that appears to separate "sinful" humanity from a righteous God, has never existed, we are and always have been one with God. For the New Monks this is God's unconditional love and grace.

Thomas Merton, who is frequently cited by Manning, is the forerunner of the New Monks. He became a Roman Catholic monk at age 26, just three days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Having accepted so much of the new theology, Merton remained involved in the Roman Catholic Church only by a thin affirmation of a God in Nature and a reverence for tradition. He popularized Jungian Psychotherapy in his writings about spiritual healing, agreeing with Jung's mythic perspective of biblical doctrines.

Merton traveled to Asia on a quest to redefine what being a monk entailed and apparently found it in Buddhist and Hindu teachings. There he discovered great similarities between monastic contemplation and Eastern Meditation and determined that they were both in touch with the same mystical source. He felt that the emphasis on experience and inner transformation rather than doctrine would be the ecumenical meeting place between East and West.

Merton advocated moving the practice of contemplation from its marginal state of use by only the Catholic monks behind the cloistered walls to a broader use by the common man. Dedicated to civil rights, antiwar, and liberationist activism, he came to call his fellow activists "true monks." Embraced by progressive Catholics, some say he was most influential in the shift from devotional spirituality to contemplative spirituality.

In The Signature of Jesus, Manning precisely echoes the themes of contemplative spirituality. It appears to be his intention to bring to Protestants what Thomas Merton brought to many Roman Catholics.

Contemplative Spirituality Promotes Universalism
Both the new theology and contemplative spirituality emphasize ecumenism. Hans Küng (whose book "On Being Christian," Manning says is "the most powerful book other than Scripture that I have ever read," p. 153) is the author of the document, Declaration of a Global Ethic, which personifies the push toward religious pluralism among progressives. The document, intended to be an agreement among the world's religions, does not contain the word God, Küng explains "because including it would exclude all Buddhist and many faith groups with different views of God and the divine."15 Most Evangelicals are familiar with ecumenism within Christendom only. However, those who hold to the new theology, and more explicitly those who hold to contemplative spirituality believe in an ecumenism which includes non Christian religions and all "faith groups." This is a logical step for those who divorce themselves from the gospel of Scripture and who adopt the view that all are saved (universalism).

Since universalism is not appealing to many Evangelicals, and Manning is attempting to reach them, he does not make blatant statements advocating it. He shows, however, that he is indeed a Universalist in two ways.16

First, the people whom Manning approvingly cites believe in universalism. David Steindl-Rast is a Roman Catholic priest who promotes contemplative theology. In a 1992 article he said, "Envision the great religious traditions arranged on the circumference of a circle. At their mystical core they all say the same thing, but with different emphasis."17 Manning cites him approvingly twice in The Signature of Jesus (pp. 210, 213-14).

The New Monks frequently use the phrase "unconditional love" to express universality. Their push to a beyond-words, beyond-thoughts meditation experience in order to fully experience a loving deity, misses entirely that apart from faith in Christ for eternal life, there can be no adequate discussion of experiencing God's love.

Matthew Fox, cited approvingly in Manning's books Lion and Lamb (p. 135) and A Stranger to Self Hatred (pp. 113, 124) is an excommunicated Catholic priest who is a contemplative. He gives us another example of the universalism of the contemplatives whom Manning cites:

Remember that 15 billion years of the universe loved you and brought you forward. And it loved you unconditionally...We were loved before the beginning...God is a great underground river, and there are many wells into that river. There's a Taoist well, a Buddhist well, a Jewish well, a Muslim well, a Christian well, a Goddess well, the Native wells-many wells that humans have dug to get into that river, but friends, there's only one river; the living waters of wisdom.18

Merton says one can work within the Christian traditions but view universalism as the broader truth: "[The contemplative] has a unified vision and experience of the one truth shining out in all its various manifestations. He does not set these partial views up in opposition to each other, but unites them in a dialectic or an insight of complementarity."19

Second, Manning makes statements which imply universalism. In The Signature of Jesus, for example, he says that contemplative spirituality (which he calls paschal spirituality) "looks upon human nature as fallen but redeemed, flawed but in essence good" (p. 125, emphasis mine). For Manning the life, death, and resurrection of Christ mean that all are redeemed. There is nothing to be done to gain the life of God. Everyone already has it:

He has a single, relentless stance toward us: he loves us. He is the only God man has ever heard of who loves sinners. False gods-the gods of human understanding-despise sinners, but the Father of Jesus loves all, no matter what they do. But of course this is almost too incredible for us to accept. Nevertheless, the central affirmation of the Reformation stands: through no merit of ours, but by his mercy, we have been restored to a right relationship with God through the life, death, and resurrection of his beloved Son. This is the Good News, the gospel of Grace (The Ragamuffin Gospel, p. 18).20

Manning says that God loves "all." He is not speaking here merely of the compassion God has for the world which moved Him to send His Son to die for us (John 3:16). He is saying that God has already restored all people to a right relationship with Him. Notice that he first says "he loves us" and then "he loves all." Clearly us, the first person plural pronoun, in this context includes everyone. Then, in the same context Manning goes on to say that "we have been restored to a right relationship with God." We there is the same group as the all mentioned earlier. All have been restored to a right relationship with God. Manning wants us to overcome our psychological fog so that we can realize it. The Good News is that everyone is already saved. The biblical view that all are lost and that only when a person trusts Jesus Christ as Savior he passes from death to life (John 5:24) is foreign to Manning and contemplatives.

The last chapter of The Signature of Jesus is all about a revelation which Manning supposedly received from God about final judgment. More will be said about this later. However, the illustration mentions by name some of the most vile men of all time, including Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Idi Amin, and Saddam Hussein, and implies that all of them, indeed all who have ever lived, will get into heaven.21

It should be noted, however, that there are statements in The Signature of Jesus and in the writings of other contemplatives which can be easily misconstrued to imply that there is salvation only for those who believe in Jesus. For example, Manning writes, "In any other great world religion it is unthinkable to address almighty God as Abba." He then supports this point by approvingly quoting Peter Van Breemen,

Many devout Moslems, Buddhists, and Hinduists are generous and sincere in their search for God. Many have had profound mystical experiences. Yet in spite of their immeasurable spiritual depth, they seldom or never come to know God as their Father. Indeed, intimacy with Abba is one of the greatest treasures Jesus has brought us (p. 170). It is important to realize that when contemplatives speak of knowing God as your Father/Abba, they are not referring to regeneration. They are referring to achieving a level of intimacy with God, "intimacy with Abba." They view all people as heaven bound. The issue for them is becoming a mystic whose experience of God transforms the life and hence the world. Their ultimate aim is to usher in a new world.22

There are statements in The Signature of Jesus which could be misconstrued as teaching Lordship Salvation as well. He denounces "cheap grace" (pp. 118, 128) and says,

In the last analysis, faith is not the sum of our beliefs or a way of speaking or a way of thinking; it is a way of living and can be articulated adequately only in a living practice. To acknowledge Jesus as Savior and Lord is meaningful insofar as we try to live as he lived and to order our lives according to his values. We do not need to theorize about Jesus; we need to make him present in our time, our culture, and our circumstances. Only a true practice of our Christian faith can verify what we believe (p. 33).

However, Manning is not talking about salvation from hell. He is speaking of deliverance from fear and shame. He is speaking here of coming into an intimate knowledge of God in one's experience, not of how we gain eternal life. Manning does not believe in Lordship Salvation; he believes in Lordship liberation, liberation from our psychological hang-ups and fears.

Centering Prayer
As mentioned above, the key to spirituality, according to Manning, is a special type of prayer which he calls "contemplative prayer" or "centering prayer."

For the uninitiated, this may not seem ominous. It may sound like what God calls us to do in His Word. It is not. It is ominous. It is a practice derived from Eastern mysticism.

In The Signature of Jesus, Manning writes, "The task of contemplative prayer is to help me achieve the conscious awareness of the unconditionally loving God dwelling within me" (p. 211). He also says, "What masters of the interior life recommend is the discipline of 'centering down' throughout the day" (p. 94).

Manning attempts to head off the charge that centering prayer comes from Eastern mysticism and the New Age movement by saying:

A simple method of contemplative prayer (often called "centering prayer" in our time and anchored in the Western Christian tradition of John Cassian and the desert fathers, and not, as some think, in Eastern mysticism or New age philosophy) has four steps (p. 218).

He instructs the reader in the practice of centering prayer, which is a type of contemplative wordless "prayer" a technique that involves breathing exercises and the chanting of a sacred word or phrase. Manning begins "the first step in faith is to stop thinking about God at the time of prayer" (p. 212)! What biblical support is there for this idea?

The second step, according to Manning, is to "without moving your lips, repeat the sacred word [or phrase] inwardly, slowly, and often" (p. 218). Once again, where is the biblical support for this practice? None is cited, because none exists.

The third step concerns what to do when inevitable distractions come. The answer is to "simply return to listening to your sacred wordGently return your mind to your sacred word" (p. 218).

Finally, "after a twenty-minute period of prayer [which Manning recommends twice daily] conclude with the Lord's Prayer, a favorite psalm, or some spontaneous words of praise and thanks" (p. 219). While he doesn't say how long this concluding recitation or spontaneous words might last, it seems he only expects this to be a minute or two, since the Lord's Prayer and most of the Psalms are short and easy to read in a minute or so. This concluding recitation seems to be an afterthought, something put in to make the "prayer" seem Christian. Yet even this fourth part is biblically suspect. Jesus said, "And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do" (Matt 6:7). Any routine prayer repeated each prayer session will soon fall into the category of "vain repetition," even if it is Scripture. The Lord's Prayer is a sample of the way we should pray, and not some prayer we should memorize and repeat back to God daily.

The instruction utilizes odd jargon such as the "false self" and "crucifixion of the ego" and a curious mix of spiritual and psychological terms. To understand his language one would need to have a more candid overview of centering prayer, which I found in an unusual-for me, not for New Agers-non Christian source called Gnosis Magazine. The following is a condensation of the article titled "From Woundedness to Union" (Gnosis, Winter 1995, pp. 41-45). The author is a Ph.D. who was tutored by the inventors of centering prayer:

Thomas Keating and Basil Pennington [who Manning credits for teaching him this prayer form] were exploring how to achieve a more concentrated experience on the general model of a Zen sesshin, having been quite experienced in sesshins. During these experiments they came upon a form of meditation from which tears, repressed memories, deep intuitions all came to the surface in a jumble, along with a sense of catharsis and bonding among the participants.

From his years as abbot, Keating recognized that this technique accelerated the sensitizing of the unconscious which is the goal of the contemplative life. He recalls, "I saw people going through in ten days what it might have taken twenty years to go through at a monastery." He believes that this unloading of the unconscious is a purification process at work to which he attaches traditional Christian terminology as the struggle against sin. This is called "Divine Therapy."

The main goal is to dismantle the "false self," the needy, driven, unrecognized motivations behind untransformed human behavior. They suggest the false self as a modern equivalent for the traditional concept of original sin. The "true self" is buried beneath the accretions and defenses. A huge amount of healing has to take place before our deep and authentic quest for union with God is realized. This, in essence, constitutes the spiritual journey.

The most fruitful connection here [for the author of the article] is the linking of the "dark night" of the traditional apophatic path and the psychological process, the "darkness" of the psyche. If psychoanalysis represents "cataphatic therapy"-using words, concepts, and awareness to illuminate the darkness of our inner ground-centering prayer presents a kind of "apophatic psycho therapy" ("apophatic" meaning that which points one towards the ineffable, beyond all words, concepts, and forms).

Periods of psychological ferment and destabilization are signs that the journey is progressing, not failing. The results can often be horrifying to ourselves. As trust grows in God and practice becomes more stable, we penetrate deeper and deeper down to the bedrock of pain, the origin of our personal false self. In response to each significant descent into the ground of our woundedness, there is a parallel ascent in the form of inner freedom, the experience of the fruits of the spirit and beatitude.

By interweaving the contemporary language of psychological healing with the traditional language of Christianity a new synthesis is born.23

Chapter seven is entitled "Celebrate the Darkness" (a title that is decidedly not only unbiblical, but even antibiblical; darkness is always presented negatively in Scripture, see, for example, 2 Cor 6:14; Eph 5:8, 11; 1 Thess 5:4-5; 1 Pet 2:9; 1 John 1:5-10). Manning writes "the ego has to break; and this breaking is like entering into a great darkness. Without such a struggle and affliction, there can be no movement in love" (p. 145). He goes on,

With the ego purged and the heart purified through the trials of the dark night, the interior life of an authentic disciple is a hidden, invisible affair. Today it appears that God is calling many ordinary Christians into this rhythm of loss and gain. The hunger I encounter across the land for silence, solitude, and centering prayer is the Spirit of Christ calling us from the shallows to the deep (p. 149).

In centering prayer the word sin becomes a religious word attached to a method of psychological therapy, and the biblical presentation of true moral guilt is omitted.24 It is a system completely open to the manipulation of the inventors who feel the liberty to use the biblical language any way they see fit. Manning attempts to give it the validity of tradition by saying that it is has been rooted in Catholic monastic practices since the 5th century: "It is a comfort to know that this is a path that others have tracked before us" (p. 149).

The practice of centering prayer is expanding in many parishes and is now moving beyond Catholic boundaries as many are coming to it from the Recovery Movement. The Catholic Church does not have an official position on this form of prayer, but some Catholic scholars refute the mind-emptying techniques. They also call for psychological studies because of the reported occurrences of depression among practitioners of New Age type meditation.

The result of this mystical practice is that the practitioner becomes less interested in objective spiritual knowledge found in the Bible and more interested in the subjective experience which is found through centering prayer. This may account for the antagonistic attitude toward traditional forms of faith. Manning speaks of "several local churches I have visited, [in which] religiosity has pushed Jesus to the margins of real life and plunged people into preoccupation with their own personal salvation" (p. 193). Of course, centering prayer requires no interest whatsoever in one's own personal salvation since it presupposes that all are already saved. That is what we discover when we "center down." Manning's attitude toward the Bible seems to be markedly different from that of Calvin and Luther, for example, or of anyone who has a high regard for it as the very Word of God:

I am deeply distressed by what I only can call in our Christian culture the idolatry of the Scriptures. For many Christians, the Bible is not a pointer to God but God himself. In a word-bibliolatry. God cannot be confined within the covers of a leather-bound book. I develop a nasty rash around people who speak as if mere scrutiny of its pages will reveal precisely how God thinks and precisely what God wants (pp. 188-89).

In The Signature of Jesus Manning rarely cites Scripture. Why should he, when the truly important knowledge of God comes from his experience of centering down and not from the Bible? Remember "God cannot be confined within the covers of a leather-bound book." While Manning would acknowledge that some elementary truths of God can be found by reading the Bible, intimate knowledge of God only comes through centering prayer.25

A Parable of Contemplation
It seems appropriate to mention Manning's latest book, The Boy Who Cried Abba: A Parable of Trust and Acceptance.26 It is a small book that appears to be written to the young as well as to adults. Although he does not announce his intentions, it is most emphatically a parable about contemplative spirituality. The book jacket has endorsements by Amy Grant27 and Max Lucado which is sure to help it sell to evangelicals.28

The parable takes place in a town near the Rio Grande. It is the story of a boy who is rejected by other children. He is scared and unloved. He finds kindness from a Medicine Man, El Shaddai [which is a Hebrew name for God, meaning God Almighty, see Gen 17:1; 28:3; 35:11], who gives him medicine to take daily. The medicine for self acceptance--oil which he rubs on his heart--becomes too difficult for him to take. His grandmother, who is named Calm Sunset, urges him to go to the cave of Bright Darkness where he will be alone and will face great difficulty. While in the cave, he continues to take the medicine as hurtful memories begin to come to the surface. In the end El Shaddai appears to him and asks the boy to accept acceptance. When he does he is healed of his scars.

Psychological salvation comes by centering down, getting away with "God" in a cave or closet. Unfortunately, it is not God that people meet in the darkness, "God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5).

The Bridge of Faith?
Manning believes that there is a chasm between belief and experience. Belief is one type of knowledge; experience is another. This is the old two-story approach to knowledge. This chasm is crossed through the contemplative experience: "Contemplative prayer bridges the gap between belief and experience because it is the bridge of faith" (p. 212).

The early mystics were revered because of their visions. Throughout the book Manning recounts some of his own peak experiences which come as a result of persevering in contemplation. He recounts that Jesus appeared to him and said "Look carefully at what you most despise in yourself and then look through it. At your center you will discover a love for Me beyond words, images, and concepts, a love you are unable to understand or contain. Your love for me is fragile but real. Trust it" (p. 181).

Manning devotes four pages (pp. 239-42) to recounting a dream about judgment day. In the dream he sees people going before the Lord Jesus to be judged. The people come in by twos. Each pair has one person most would say is good, and one whom most would say is bad. "I see Sandi Patti step forward followed by Madonna. I see Saddam Hussein and Mother Teresa. Next came Adolph Hitler and Mohandas Gandhi. Idi Amin and Billy Graham--The prophet Amos and Hugh Hefner--and Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt" (p. 241). Finally Manning comes before the Lord, trembling and fearful, but God does not judge.29 The result? "He takes my hand and we go home" (p. 242). Implied, of course, is that Saddam Hussein, Idi Amin, Hugh Hefner, Stalin, and Hitler all went to heaven as well. Manning's universalism is evident in this dream.

This dream is not an educated guess by Manning. It is a revelation from God which is on par with Scripture! After describing the dream he says, "The content of this dream is more real than the book you are holding in your hand--The dream is neither the product of a vivid imagination nor a comatose religious fantasy" (pp. 242-43). Manning's dream is loosely based on the Bible's account of the Great White Throne Judgment (Rev 20:11-15), but misses very important details. For example, everyone at the Great White Throne Judgment will be condemned to the Lake of Fire. There won't be any believers there. The remarkable thing here is that Manning bases his understanding of judgment day not on the Bible, but on a vision he had. And he expects the reader to do so as well, delivering his dream with a sense of prophetic authority.

Although Manning does make occasional use of the Scripture, it is impossible to miss that Scripture has been attached to devotional spirituality but not to contemplative spirituality. In this way the authority of Scripture is diminished.

Contemplative Spirituality and Postmodernism
Although Manning has, for the most part, adopted the language of evangelicalism, his presuppositions are clearly from contemplative spirituality, which denies that there can even be a set of true propositions from the Bible which could be proved literally, objectively, and historically.30 It has been noted here that several modernist philosophies have come into alignment in Contemplative Spirituality. For example consider this clear statement of Existentialism from William H. Shannon, a contemplative whom Manning cites approvingly in the Signature of Jesus (pp. 211, 216):

To call God mystery is to remind ourselves that all the knowledge of God comes from some human experience of God. The heart of the mystery is this: the words we possess are able to express only the human experience, not the divine reality experienced."31

This language is far away from a biblical understanding of truth and how we can know about truth. In addition to expressing familiar modernist philosophies, Contemplative Spirituality is also parallel in many respects with what is called Postmodernism. According to postmodern theory, truth is not objective or absolute, it is socially constructed, plural, and inaccessible to universal reason. Yet its most ominous concept is that language itself must be "deconstructed." This is echoed by contemplative spirituality in the assertion that ultimate truth is "beyond words," "beyond doctrine," it is "ineffable" and can only be known experientially through "wordless prayer." They say this is a renewal of the path of the Catholic mystic.

The article by Zane Hodges in this journal titled "Post-Evangelicalism Confronts the Postmodern Age" (JOTGES, Spring 1996, pp. 3-14) makes this relevant observation:

Postmodernism has taken the final step and has dismissed language itself as a legitimate conveyor of truth. To the postmodernist, all communication is theory-laden and can never point to ultimate reality of any kind.

Discussing the deconstruction of truth he goes on to note:

It is plain that such an approach to the Scriptures robs them of any inherent authority and places the interpreter above the text rather than under it. What the interpreter will hear is not the voice of the Lord, but his own voice. And in postmodernism that is all the interpreter really wants to hear! From one point of view postmodernism is the ultimate attempt to place man in authority over the Scriptures rather than place the Scriptures in authority over man.

Radical Discipleship?
As mentioned earlier, Manning claims that his book is about radical discipleship. And what is a radical disciple? It is one who is the "fully integrated person" (a contemplative term which has something to do with being integrated psychologically). This is important because the New Monks are seeking to usher in a non-violent, environmentally-conscious (healing the earth's woundedness) society. Ultimately Manning expects to usher in the new heavens and the new earth (pp. 18, 194).

The theme of nonviolence has the genius of framing broad indictments of society. Not only does non-violence cover pacifism ("The pragmatic wisdom of 'self defense' and 'national security' masks our childish fantasies of revenge"p. 83), but even job stress comes under its umbrella.

Throughout his other books Manning gives examples of individuals that he specifically refers to as "radical disciples," including Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners, a leftist Christian magazine. (Wallis must have startled even the secular left with his assertion that the Vietnamese boat people set sail because of their addiction to western goods.) Another example is Walter Burghardt. Manning approvingly cites David H. C. Read who says, "In my opinion, no one today can equal Walter Burghardt in expounding the Gospel..."32 And who is Burghardt? He is coordinator of "Preach the Just Word," a program sponsored by the Woodstock Theological Center to assist priests in being more effective in preaching social justice. Evidently for Manning, like liberation theologians,33 "expounding the gospel" is preaching social justice.

Another example of radical disciples according to Manning is the Berrigan brothers, well-known during the Vietnam War period, but more recently active in Plowshares, an organization committed to anti-military activism.

Conclusion
Manning speaks much of God's grace and love but these precious biblical concepts are actually replaced by vague notions of wholeness through an eastern religious meditation technique, Centering Prayer. Many of the contemplatives assert that this constitutes the spiritual journey and is the same process as integrating the conscious with the unconscious as described by Jungian psychotherapy. Throughout the course of this book some of the most crucial biblical truths, such as sin and forgiveness, are reinterpreted in the light of therapy. The irony is that a clear biblical gospel, if believed to be true, will produce assurance that has truly profound psychological benefits.34There is no place for centering prayer in discipleship. Meditation is to be on God's Word, not on nothingness.

Contemplative spirituality is dangerous. Christian leaders should warn their people about it. Those who are interested in a comprehensive biblical understanding of true biblical spirituality and of the gospel of Jesus Christ should be warned that Manning is traveling on a wholly other path.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 See pp. 209-27, 218, 94, 115-36, 185-96, 216, 137-58, 58-59, 58, 94, 94, 170, 102, 111, 112, 30, 29, 219, 94, 224, 224, 231, 65, and 168 respectively.

2 Reviewed by Robert N. Wilkin in the Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society, Autumn 1994, 74-75.

3 One of the keys to this spirituality is a meditation technique called centering prayer, which isn't really prayer at all. It is an emptying of the mind and a chanting of a sacred word or phrase over and over again. More on this shortly.

4 Brennan Manning, The Signature of Jesus. Sisters, OR: Multnomah Books, 1996.

5 Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-up, and Burnt Out. Portland, OR: Multnomah Press, 1990.

6 Manning tells of literally sitting in a dark room with one solitary spotlight shining on a crucifix (p. 47): "Prostrate on the floor, I whisper, 'Come, Lord Jesus' over and over."

7 The Signature of Jesus, 94, italics added.

8 Schaeffer seems to have used the phrase broadly to avoid clumsiness in his discussion of how modern shifts in philosophies have effected theology. The expression new theology as Schaeffer uses it, encompasses neo-orthodoxy, strongly rationalistic liberal theology, theologies following Kierkegaard's leap of faith, and theologies following in the footsteps of the religious existentialism of Heidegger. Since Manning and the contemplatives drink from all of these fountains, I have used this expres

9 Francis Schaeffer, The God Who Is There. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1968.

10 John B. Healey, "The Journey Within," America, February 19, 1994.

11 Schaeffer, The God Who is There, p. 61.

12 I coined this term since these priests promote mysticism for the common man through the use of their interpretation of monastic ideas and meditation. For them every man should be a mystic and every man should be a true monk. A "true monk" is a social activist. There are even self help books on how to be a mystic, for example, Why Not Be a Mystic?, by Frank X. Tuoti, New York: Crossroads Publishing, 1995.

13 This phrase is from Carl Jung, whose teaching is highly influential to the New Monks. Manning also favorably cites him in The Ragamuffin Gospel, p. 153 and Abba's Child, p. 41. Jung, a psychologist who was a disciple of Freud, believed one could become whole by integrating the unconscious with the conscious, however, this process requires embracing the darkness of the unconscious. Jung was known to even use occultic techniques to facilitate this. Jung interpreted Christian doctrine from a mythic perspective. He maintained that religious myth and symbol was an expression of the "collective unconscious" of the human race. Jung defined God as "whatever cuts across my will outside of myself, or whatever wells up from the collective unconscious from within myself."

14 A further example of how biblical language and themes are distorted by the New Monks is found in the writings of Alan Jones, favorably cited by Manning in The Signature of Jesus, pp. 11, 148, 198, 207 and in Abba's Child, p. 55.

15 John R. Coyne, Jr., "Ultimate Reality in Chicago," in National Review, October 4, 1993.

16 Manning doesn't like being called a Universalist, and when charged with being one in some of his speaking engagements, he denies it. He does so by quibbling over the definition of universalism, not by saying that only those who believe in Jesus Christ have eternal life. This type of response is unconvincing and suggests that he dislikes the label because if it were widely known that he was a Universalist, his outreach to Evangelicals would be greatly damaged, if not destroyed.

17 David Steindl-Rast, "Heroic Virtue," Gnosis Summer 1992.

18 Fox, highly influenced by Merton, is the author of Original Blessing (the title is intended to be set in contrast to the phrase, "original sin") and The Cosmic Christ. (Fox believes that the "second coming" of the Cosmic Christ, an awakening to mysticism, will usher in a global renaissance that can heal Mother Earth and save her by changing human hearts and ways.) Fox is founder of Creation Spirituality.
It may appear that I am selecting the most extreme of the contemplatives to serve as an example, but it should be noted that Fox is admired by other contemplatives. For example, Steindl-Rast says of Fox, "He's right in pointing out that we have spent too much time and energy on redemption centered spirituality and we have to look into a creation centered spirituality" ("Heroic Virtue," Gnosis Magazine, Summer 1992, p. 42). Steindl-Rast is also favorably cited by Manning in The Signature of Jesus, pp. 211, 214. Steindl-Rast is currently Scholar-in-Residence at the Esalen Institute in Bug Sur, CA.

19 Merton, Contemplation in a World of Action. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1965, pp. 207-208.

20 See also his approving citation on the previous page of Fyodor Dostoevsky's suggestion that God will accept into heaven sinners of every stripe (drunkards, weaklings, vile beings), including those who have taken the mark of the beast. The latter is a direct contradiction of Rev 14:9-11. The former is only true of those who have been washed in the blood of Christ by faith. Yet Dostoevsky and Manning put no qualifier on which sinners get into heaven. All go to heaven.

21 In a 1995 sermon given at Greenbelt Seminars in Sheffield, England, entitled "In Bed with God" (what kind of title is this!), Manning says, "Do you see why the revelation of Jesus on the nature of God is so revolutionary? [Do you see] why no Christian can ever say one form of prayer is not as good as another or one religion is not as good as another?" If all religions are equally good, then universalism must be true.

22 Manning twice indicates we are "involve[d] in building the new heavens and the new earth" (p. 18) and that our "mission" is "building the new heavens and the new earth under the signature of Jesus" (p. 194). While this is a startling claim for those who know the biblical promise that it is God who will introduce the new heavens and the new earth (e.g., Rev 21:1ff.), it is consistent with the emphasis of contemplatives.

23 Interestingly Basil Pennington started his own foundation to further centering prayer called the Mastery Foundation. His cofounder is Werner Erhart of EST fame.

24 Manning gives us better insight into the contemplatives' view of sin in his book Abba's Child (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1994, p. 163). He writes, "As Julian of Norwich [a Catholic mystic] said, 'Sin will be no shame, but honor.' The dualism between good and evil is overcome by the crucified Rabbi who has reconciled all things in himself. We need not be eaten alive by guilt. We can stop lying to ourselves. The reconciled heart says that everything that has happened to me had to happen to ma Such a view cannot be harmonized with the Word of God which says "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5).

25 In his first chapters of an earlier book, Gentle Revolutionaries (Denville, NJ: Dimension Books, 1975), Manning indicates that we all have seven "centers," three bad (security, sensation, and power) and four good (love, acceptance, self awareness, and unitive). The unitive center is the "highest level of consciousness" (p. 104). None of this, of course, is found in the Bible. It is all consistent with centering prayer and contemplative spirituality, neither of which depends on being anchored

26 Manning, The Boy Who Cried Abba: A Parable of Trust and Acceptance. San Francisco: HarperCollins Publishers, 1997.

27 Amy Grant appears to have been influenced by contemplative spirituality and by Manning. In an interview in the August-September 1997 issue of a magazine called Aspire, she refers three times to developing a "rich interior life" and once to "one of the richest interior experiences I had" (p. 25). These terms are not found in the Bible or in normal Christian literature; however, they are common in Manning and in contemplative writings. Perhaps she is unaware of exactly what Manning is teaching. On p. 65 of that issue of Aspire under the heading "Amazing Grace," a glowing review is given of The Boy Who Cried Abba, indicative of the notoriety Manning is receiving.

28 I was even more surprised to see that Dr. Larry Crabb, a Free Grace advocate, endorsed Manning's 1994 book, Abba's Child. It would be hard to be much more laudatory than this: "Brennan is my friend, walking ahead of me on the path toward home. As I watch him from behind, I am drawn to more closely follow on the path, to more deeply enjoy Abba's love. Thanks, Brennan." It is not clear whether he is referring to Manning being older or more spiritually mature. However, what is clear is that he c

29Manning frequently recycles his material throughout his writing. This revelation was also recounted in his book Gentle Revolutionaries (Denville, NJ: Dimension Books, 1975) p. 138. In this telling of his revelation, he stands before God awaiting his judgment. God says "I am not your judge." This quote is left out of his 1996 version. Other details are also different. For example, Madonna and George and Barbara Bush appear in the 1996 version, but not in the 1975 version. Nelson Rockefeller, Howard Hughes, Dorothy Day, and Mr. and Mrs. Richard Burton appeared in the 1975 version but were omitted in the 1996 edition. Either he has had the revelation twice or the story is changing with the times.

30As a further example of Manning's embrace of the existential method of evaluating historical truth, he favorably cites Walter Wink (The Signature of Jesus, p. 72) and Marcus Borg (The Ragamuffin Gospel, p. 25). Both of these men are liberal scholars, among the 74 Fellows that comprise The Jesus Seminar, founded in 1985 to identify the "historical" or "true" Jesus. They also claim to be evaluating whether any of the traditional books of the canon or parts of those books should be dropped. To date they have determined that the entire Gospel of John should be excluded because it differs too much from the Synoptics and portrays Jesus as the world's only Savior. They also contend that only 18% of the sayings of Jesus recorded in the Synoptic Gospels should be retained as authentic (SCP Journal, Vol 21 [1997]: 1-2). (Be aware that the SCP Journal does not seem to be particularly friendly to the Free Grace view.)

31 William Shannon, Seeds of Peace. (New York: the Crossroads Publishing Co., 1996), p. 33.

32 The Signature of Jesus, p. 250, f.n. 1 for chap 9.

33Manning favorably cites Jürgen Moltmann who has been credited for helping to provide the theological roots used by Latin American liberation theology. In addition, Manning himself bluntly advocated liberation theology in an earlier book, "The Church as the visible body of the Lord is committed to global freedom, to active participation in the construction of a just social order, and to stimulating and radicalizing the dedication of Christians. The holy alliance [!] between charismatic spirituality [which he later came to call paschal or contemplative spirituality] and liberation theology serves to vitalize the Church's action in the world and to make its commitment to the Lordship of Jesus deeper and more radical" (Gentle Revolutionaries, p. 112, italics added). In this book Manning cites Gustavo Gutierrez, author of A Theology of Liberation. He also cites Enrique Dussel, author of Philosophy of Liberation and History and the Theology of Liberation.

34 See "The Psychological Effects of Lordship Salvation," by Frank Minirth in the Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society, Autumn 1993, 39-51.


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Roger Oakland Bio

Roger Oakland
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Roger OaklandRoger Oakland is the founder of Understanding the Times International, an organization dedicated to building up the body of Christ for discernment and reaching non-Christians with the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is also an author and renown lecturer who speaks all over the world on a variety of subjects from a Christian worldview. His works have been published in many different languages and he has ministered in over 40 different countries. He continues to use his gifting of making tough concepts understandable for people of all ages and backgrounds. [1]

Contents [hide]
1 Early Ministry
2 Understanding the Times International
3 Publications
4 References

Early Ministry
Roger Oakland was formerly a biology teacher and evolutionist. He converted over to Christianity in 1978. The book that he and Dan Wooding wrote describing his conversion is "Let There Be Light".[2]

Early in his ministry he worked closely with Glen and Larry McLean. He was based in Eston, Saskatchewan from 1980 to 1988, but in September of 1988, he and his family moved from Canada to southern California. He worked on the staff for Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa for about three years. After forming Understanding the Times International, he was led to spread the gospel world-wide. He continues to strive to reach as many people as possible to preach that God's infallible word is the only true source for understanding the past, present, and future.[3]

Understanding the Times International

Roger Oakland and some children that have been sponsored through Understanding the Times InternationalUnderstanding the Times International was formed by Roger Oakland in 1990. Their main objective is to be an "International Missionary Outreach Dedicated to Evangelizing the Lost and Equipping the Church for Discernment". They work to monitor the news from a Biblical perspective.

Understanding the Times International is a non-profit organization that receives tax-deductible financial support through donations from individuals and churches, along from sales of materials from its site online. All proceeds go directly to expanding and growing God's kingdom.[4] Roger Oakland and his ministry seek to make all aware of the Lord's coming, and it is clear that his ministry puts emphasis on Ephesians 5:15-17: "See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is."

Roger Oakland
Understand The Times International
P.O. Box 27239
Santa Ana, CA 92799 USA
(800) 689-1888

P.O. Box 1160
Eston, Saskatchewan
Canada S0L 1A0
306-962-3672
Email: ronpierotti@volcano.net
Website: http://www.understandthetimes.org/


Publications
Faith Undone
Let There Be Light is the testimony of Roger Oakland, being transformed as a dedicated evolutionist to a dedicated creationist. Read the account of God's power working in one man's life.
Seaching For The Truth On Origins Leader's Manual by Roger Oakland and Larry Scroggins
Another Jesus? The Eucharistic Christ and the New Evangelism Points readers back to a "more sure word of prophecy" and the true Jesus of the Bible and heed the Bible's warnings.
The Evidence for Creation By McLean, Oakland and McLean
New Wine or Old Deception?
When New Wine Makes A Man Divine
New Wine and the Babylonian Vine
The Gospel According to Joseph Smith
The Emerging Church 4 DVD set
The Wiles of the Devil
The Emerging Church - Revival or Return to Darkness?
References
Faith Undone- Author Bio Lighthouse Trails Publishing
Roger Oakland Biography by Internet Movie Database
History of the Ministry Understanding the Times International
Goals and Objectives Understanding the Times International

Christians Beware!

Revival Or Return To Darkness?

Commentary by Roger Oakland
www.understandthetimes.org

History reveals that Christian fads and trends come and go. It seems that it is common for many pastors and church leaders to constantly look for some new methodology, “new wave” or “new thing” God is doing, “right now.”

We live at a period in church history that is characterized by enthusiasm for methods and means that facilitate church growth. Large churches are commonly equated with successful pastors and successful church growth methods. Whatever it takes to reach that objective, is acceptable, we are told. Church growth has become the measuring stick for successful Christianity.

Purpose-Driven Christianity

It is true that some of the largest and fastest growing churches and church movements in the world today promote a concept called “purpose-driven.” No matter where you go these days anywhere around the world, purpose-driven is being proclaimed as the latest church growth method.


But stop for a moment and think. What is it that defines success from a biblical perspective? While we are accustomed to accepting numbers or quantity as the yardstick for measuring success, when it comes to Christianity, quantity without quality can be misleading.

According to the Bible, Christian faith must be directly related to God’s Word. Faith comes by hearing what God has said and then acting accordingly. With regard to church growth, if the growth is the product of some technique authored by some man, and this technique is not based on God’s Word, the results may actually be deceptive.

With this in mind, we will consider this current common trend known as the “purpose-driven” church growth movement. Before we do, let’s review the biblical premise that we are to test the teachings of men as the Bereans did (Acts chapter 17) and search the Scriptures diligently.

The Purpose of Purpose-Driven

One of the major goals of the purpose-driven church growth movement is church growth. This growth is dependent on adding numbers based on human methods and techniques. While promoters say these human methods are found in the Bible, there are reasons to question this claim.

It would appear that many of the purpose-driven techniques are oriented towards what’s in it for me, rather than what I can do for you. Successful purpose-driven church leaders find out what appeals to seekers who might come to their church and then provide the service or the environment that meets their approval. Thus purpose-driven churches can become market-oriented for the “seeker-friendly” without being so biblical that “seekers” would be offended.

Most Christians would agree that to be faithful to Jesus and His Word, healthy church growth should be based on the teaching of God’s Word. However, a market-driven church based on man-made methods designed to increase numbers may produce converts who are biblically illiterate.

Man’s word or God’s Word

The Scriptures have been carefully translated from Hebrew and Greek so the Word of God can be understood in the languages of our day. Some say we need to make the Bible more understandable by taking the Word of God and changing it to the words of men. But is this idea biblical?

Remember that the Bible has been given to us by God. As Paul stated in his letter to Timothy:

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. [1]

While the Bible has been written by human hands, the words were inspired by God. Not only are the words inspired, but the Bible states humans are prohibited from altering the Scriptures by adding to or taking away from what God has said. Notice what we read in the Book of Revelation:

For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. [2]

Therefore according to Scripture, humans tread on dangerous ground when we take the liberty of adding to or deleting from what God has said. However, it is a fact that many seeker-friendly churches try to make the scriptures more “seeker-friendly”, by altering the actual inspired Word of God and reinterpret it into the ideas or views of man.

Whose Message?

For example, consider a new version of the Bible authored by Eugene Peterson known as “The Message.” Described as a “contemporary rendering of the Bible from the original languages, crafted to present its tone, rhythm, events, and ideas in everyday language,” this “paraphrased” version of the Bible, in reality, is nothing more than Eugene Peterson’s thoughts and views. Peterson has taken the carefully translated words of the Bible and put them into his own words and chosen idioms. [3]

For example, consider the following portion of Scripture taken from John 3:17 - "that the world through him might be saved.” Peterson’s rendering reads: "He came to help, to put the world right again." It does not take a biblical scholar to understand that "saved" means that we can be redeemed from the judgment we deserve for our sins so that we can go to heaven. It should be obvious that using "help" instead of “saved” completely distorts the meaning of what Jesus said. And "to put the world right again" has nothing to do with the salvation of souls. In fact this sounds like the social gospel to reform the world through political action.

Rick Warren, the author of The Purpose Driven Church, is a strong supporter of Eugene Peterson’s message. While Warren claims he quotes the Bible when he quotes The Message he is not quoting the Bible. He is quoting the thoughts of some man who thinks he is stating what the Bible states.

You may ask, so what is wrong with this? Isn’t it better for a seeker to be reading some version of the Bible, rather than not reading the Bible at all? Many Christians, although they have been believers for years, claim they still have difficulty in understanding the Bible that has been translated word by word from the original text. If someone can come up with a way to make the Bible more understandable, wouldn’t this be a great tool for planting seeds for the gospel of Jesus Christ?

Such a line of reasoning may sound acceptable. However we also know that what seems right to man, may be wrong from God’s perspective. Further when we rely upon man’s thoughts rather than God’s thoughts it’s almost certain that we will be deceived. With regard to Eugene Peterson’s The Message, there is one message that should be clear. If you want the truth and all the truth, read the Bible - not some man’s conjecture about what he thinks God has said. Otherwise you have the potential of committing spiritual suicide.

Relevancy without Compromise
While it is true, Christianity must be relevant in order to be effective, how far can we stray from biblical standards and still be sound Christian witnesses of the gospel of Jesus Christ?

Perhaps you have not heard about another new trend sweeping the Christian church. Many are saying a great change lies ahead. The seeker-friendly era is over. Now we are headed into another new period of church history. It’s called “the emerging church.” If you have not heard of this, try doing a search on the Internet by tying “emerging church” into a search engine. I guarantee you will be amazed at what you find.

Rick Warren is very supportive of “the emerging church.” This is what he wrote in a foreword for Dan Kimball’s book, The Emerging Church: Vintage Christianity for New Generations --

This book is a wonderful, detailed example of what a purpose-driven church can look like in a postmodern world. My friend Dan Kimball writes passionately, with a deep desire to reach the emerging generation and culture. While my book The Purpose-Driven Church explained what the church is called to do, Dan’s book explains how to do it with the cultural creatives who think and feel in postmodern terms. You need to pay attention to him because times are changing.[4]

It is true over the past decades many trends have come and gone. As Warren stated in the foreword of Kimball’s book:

As a pastor, I’ve watched churches adopt many contemporary styles in worship, programming, architecture, music, and other elements. That’s okay as long as the biblical message is unchanged. But whatever is in style now will inevitably be out of style soon, and the cycles of change are getting shorter and shorter, aided by technology and the media. New styles, like fashions, are always emerging. [5]

Not all these trends have been based on sound biblical doctrine. In fact the reason many of these trends occurred was because Christians were vulnerable to “winds of doctrine” that had no biblical basis.

According to the Bible, in last days these winds of doctrine will be “doctrines of demons” that will influence Christians to fall away from the truth and accept ideas that “tickle their ears.” [6]

Rick Warren is not only supportive of the “emerging church,” he believes that it is exactly what is required at this time. He believes this is what “the purpose-driven” church that he founded will become in the “postmodern world.” He notes:

In the past twenty years, spiritual seekers have changed a lot. In the first place, there are a whole lot more of them. There are seekers everywhere. I’ve never seen more people so hungry to discover and develop the spiritual dimension of their lives. That is why there is such a big interest in Eastern thought, New Age practices, mysticism and the transcendent. [7]

Further, he explains what the “emerging church” must do in order to emerge:

Today seekers are hungry for symbols and metaphors and experiences and stories that reveal the greatness of God. Because seekers are constantly changing, we must be sensitive to them like Jesus was; we must be willing to meet them on their own turf and speak to them in ways they understand. [8]



Now, let’s follow Rick Warren’s line of reasoning through to its logical conclusion based on the idea the world is hungry for an Eastern worldview, the New Age, mysticism and spiritual enlightenment. If it is necessary to meet these “spiritual seekers” on their turf, wouldn’t that require Christianity to become more New Age and mystical?


Emerging into What?

Rick Warren and others say we need to pay attention to the emerging church. Things are changing, they say and the “emerging church” has the answers for our generation. But what will the emerging church emerge into? Could it be a form of Christianity that embraces experience rather than God’s Word?

Dan Kimball is the author of The Emerging Church: Vintage Christianity for New Generations. He is also launching a church called Vintage Faith Church in Santa Cruz, California. Kimball makes the following statement in the introduction of his book:

I believe with all my heart that this discussion about the fast-changing culture and the emerging church must take place. While many of us have been preparing sermons and keeping busy with the internal affairs of our churches, something alarming has been happening on the outside. What once was a Christian nation with a Judeo-Christian worldview is quickly becoming a post Christian, unchurched, unreached nation. New generations are arising all around us without any Christian influence. So we must rethink virtually everything we are doing in our ministries. [9]

Certainly the spiritual climate in North America has changed radically over the past number of years just as Dan Kimball has stated. Many, including Rick Warren and Dan Kimball use the term “post-Christian era” to describe the days in which we are living. They say, while the seeker-friendly era was successful in bringing a generation of “baby-boomers” to Jesus, that time is past. Now we need to find new innovative methods that will reach this new generation for Jesus.

Kimball’s book, The Emerging Church: Vintage Christianity for New Generations, is written for this purpose. He not only identifies the problems he believes the church is now facing, he provides the answers and the solutions. The church for the future, he believes, must be more sensual and experienced-based. He calls this church “Vintage Christianity”.

Perhaps the term “Vintage Christianity” is new to you. While it is not my intention to describe all that it means in this commentary, a few chapter titles from Kimball’s book under a heading called “Reconstructing Vintage Christianity in the Emerging Church” will be helpful for us to understand where the emerging church is headed. These are: “Overcoming the Fear of Mulitsensory Worship and Teaching”, [10] “Creating a Sacred Space for Vintage Worship”, [11] “Expecting the Spiritual”, [12] “Creating Experiential Multisensory Worship Gatherings”, [13] “Becoming Story Tellers Again” [14] and “Preaching Without Words”. [15]

Now, I ask you, this question. What does the Bible say about Vintage Christianity and the so-called emerging church? Is the goal of Christianity experience-based or Bible-based? Jesus said: “If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” [16] Further He stated: “Why do ye not understand My speech? because ye cannot hear My word.” [17]

Less Word, More Worship

It should be apparent by now that the emerging church is more experience-based than Bible-based. Further, in the emerging church the Word of God takes a secondary position to the worship of God.

While Dan Kimball and other promoters of the emerging church may be sincere in their efforts to evangelize the postmodern generation and believe they are genuinely representing the scriptures, there are some real concerns that need to be addressed. Deviating from the Word of God for extrabiblical experience can open the door to deception. While worshipping God is a very important part of the Christian faith there are problems that can occur if worship supersedes the word.

However, Dan Kimball sees a new worship generation in the making based on experience that is essential to the emerging church. In a section of his book subtitled "Truly worshipping in a worship gathering,” he writes:

We should be returning to a no-holds-barred approach to worship and teaching so that when we gather, there is no doubt we are in the presence of God. I believe that both believers and unbelievers in our emerging culture are hungry for this. It isn’t about clever apologetics or careful exegetical and expository preaching or great worship bands. … Emerging generations are hungry to experience God in worship. [18]

Obviously, in order for this to happen, changes would have to be incorporated. Kimball has thought this through and offers a number of suggestions which he lists in a chart [19] that shows how the “modern church” must adjust and move towards a “no-holds-barred approach” to worship. Some of these are:

Services designed to be user-friendly and contemporary must change to services that are designed to be experiential and spiritual-mystical.

Stained-glass that was taken out of churches and replaced with video screens should now be brought back into the church on video screens.

Lit up and cheery sanctuaries need to be darkened because darkness is valued and displays a sense of spirituality.

The focal point of the service that was the sermon must be changed so that the focal point of the service is a holistic experience.

Use of modern technology that was used to communicate with a contemporary flare must change so that church attendees can experience the ancient and mystical (and use technology to do so).

While I realize we are living at a period of time where technology is the key to entertainment and visual stimulation is a necessary tool required for capturing the attention of this generation, I ask you to consider what the Bible teaches. What about less Word and more experience? Could someone quote the chapter and verse to justify that? What about the idea that visual stimulation is the formula for inducing a spiritual atmosphere that will draw seekers to Jesus? Where is that found in the Bible?

I don’t know about you, but my when I hear about the emerging-church-methodology to forsake “apologetics” and “careful exegetical and expository preaching” for the sake of a generation that is “hungry to experience God”, I have some concerns. Could this be another avenue to “dumb-down” Christianity so that we no longer know what God has said? How effective can experiential Christianity be when it comes to knowing who we are, where we are in time, and where we are headed?

Jesus said He is coming again? How many professing Christians will be ready when He returns?

Ancient-Future Faith

Dr. Robert “Bob” Webber is recognized by pastors, denominational leaders, scholars and lay people as one of the foremost authorities on worship renewal. He regularly conducts workshops for almost every major denomination in North America through the Institute of Worship Studies which he founded in 1995.

Prior to his appointment to his present position at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, Dr. Webber taught at Wheaton College for 32 years as Professor of Theology. He has authored over 40 books and is also a regular contributor to numerous magazines and newspapers. [20] He is on the editorial board of Chuck Fromm’s “Worship Leader” magazine.

I was first introduced to Dr. Webber and his views when I read an article that he had written in the May/June issue of “Worship Leader” tiled Wanted: Ancient Future Talent. Under a subheading labeled “The Call for Ancient-Future Worship Talent” Webber wrote:

I am personally most gratified to see the shift toward a recovery of the ancient. While many good choruses have been produced over the past forty years, the rejection of the sources of hymnody and worship by the contemporary church has resulted in a faith that is an inch deep. [21]

In this article, Dr. Webber stated that “the Spirit is working a new thing in the church” and an “ancient-future worship is being born.” He listed a number of things that he believes are necessary for “talented workers” to discover if they are going to be a successful part of this new movement. Some of these are:

Rediscover how God acts through the sacred signs of water, bread and wine, oil and laying on of hands.

Rediscover the central nature of the table of the Lord in the Lord’s Supper, breaking of bread, communion and Eucharist.

Rediscover how congregational spirituality is formed through the Christian celebration of time in Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter and Pentecost.

While I agree with Dr. Webber it would be beneficial to reintroduce the great hymns written in the past by anointed men and women of God that expound sound biblical doctrine, it appears that is not what he means by returning to “the ancient.” In fact his list of things to do in his call for “ancient-future worship talent” mentions a number of terms and ideas that cannot be found in the Bible.

For example, when I hear the expression “sacred signs of bread and wine” or the mention of “Lent” as a means of “rediscovering congregational spirituality” - while these ideas may be ancient, I wonder where the ideas originate. Further, when I hear about “rediscovering the central nature of the table of the Lord in the Lord’s supper, breaking of bread, communion and Eucharist” I am reminded about the “new evangelization” program that is presently underway. Did you know Pope John Paul II has called for a “missionary vision” centered on “a rekindling of amazement focused on the Eucharist” to bring the world to the Eucharistic Jesus?

Could the Merging Church be Reemerging?

Dr. Webber is one of the chief promoters of the emerging church. He has written a number of books on the topic including Ancient-Future Evangelism: Making Your Church a Faith-Forming Community and Ancient-Future Faith: Rethinking Evangelicalism for a Postmodern World.


In order to clarify Dr. Webber’s views, I did some further research. I found an interview Dr. Webber had done posted on a web site called TheOoze.com. Responding to the question: “What do you think the North American evangelical church is going to look like 25 years from now?” Dr Webber responded:

Christianity will be less national, less culturally formed. It will be smaller pockets of communities in neighborhoods. The church will focus on people, not buildings, on community, not programs, on scripture study, not showy worship. [22]

Certainly this view of the future sounds reasonable and acceptable from a biblical perspective. In fact, I could say a hearty “Amen” to what Dr. Webber said. But the next statement adds a whole different dimension to the direction he believes Christianity is emerging towards. He stated:

Biblical symbols such as baptismal identity and Eucharistic thanksgiving will take on new meaning. The church will be less concerned about having eschatology and more committed to being an eschatological community. [23]

Over the past several years, I have observed that Dr. Webber’s prediction regarding the future of the church seems to be accurate. Many who were once anticipating the soon and imminent return of Jesus are now asleep. Some are saying it appears “the Lord has delayed His coming.” Others are saying “we have been misled by pastors and teachers who have taught us that the second coming is a literal return of Jesus to set up His Kingdom.” These same people are claiming the “Kingdom of God” will be established here on earth through Christians during the Eucharistic Reign of Jesus.”

After reading Dr. Webber’s prediction that “Biblical symbols such as baptismal identity and Eucharistic thanksgiving will take on new meaning,” I ordered his book “Ancient-Future Evangelism.” This is what I read on page 114:

A brief glance at the teaching of the Eucharist from the pre-Nicene period provides insight into the early church’s understanding. The Fathers taught that continual spiritual nourishment was provided to believers at this great feast. First it is clear from the writings of Justin Martyr in the middle of the second century that this is no empty symbol. Christ is really present in the bread and wine. He feeds us in the remembrance of His salvation. He feeds us through His presence which is accomplished through prayer. [24]




The idea that Jesus is present in the Eucharist is a Roman Catholic teaching. It is based on transubstantiation. Transubstantiation is required to manifest the Eucharistic Jesus. The Eucharistic Jesus is not the Jesus of the Bible. The Eucharistic Jesus is “another Jesus”.

Is the “Emerging Church” emerging or remerging?

Who Is Evangelizing Who?

Supporters of the “Emerging-Church” write and speak passionately about evangelism. They are committed to reaching the Postmodern generation. They say that their goal is to communicate the truths of Christianity in a way that can be understood by this generation. They are willing to adapt or change whatever needs to be changed in order to be relevant evangelists.

While purpose-driven evangelists removed crosses and other Christian symbols from church services to be seeker-friendly, the Postmodern generation, also called the Gen Xers, apparently are attracted to crosses, candles, stained-glass, liturgy, and sacraments. According to Julie Sevig, in an article called “Ancient New” that she wrote for The Lutheran:

Postmoderns prefer to encounter Christ by using all their senses. That's part of the appeal of classical liturgical or contemplative worship: the incense and candles, making the sign of the cross, the taste and smell of the bread and wine, touching icons and being anointed with oil. In Soul Tsunami: Sink or Swim in New Millennium Culture (Zondervan, 1999), Leonard Sweet says: "Postmoderns want a God they can feel, taste, touch, hear and smell--a full sensory immersion in the divine." [25]

Sevig interviewed Karen Ward, an associate director for worship for an “Emerging Church.” Sevig wrote:

This return to the traditional--the sacred--crosses denominational lines, Ward says. In fact, an interesting marriage is occurring between evangelicals and the liturgy. "Evangelicals are using traditions from all liturgical churches from Orthodox to Lutheran to Catholic," she says. "Though they have limited experience using their new-found symbols, rituals and traditions, they're infusing them with vitality and spirit and life, which is reaching people." [26]


It can be documented that Dr. Robert Webber’s books are winning converts. But who is being converted and what are they being converted to? The answer to this question can be found at a Roman Catholic web site called “Ancient and Future Christian Reading List.” Several of Dr. Webber’s books are listed there such as Ancient-Future Faith: Rethinking Evangelicalism. Under the books heading, there is the following description:


Webber writes about how many Christians today, especially younger ones, are seeking a faith connected to the ancient Church. Thus, postmodern Christians are seeking an ancient and future faith, one that embraces the past for the future, rather than ignoring the past completely. Also, thanks to the reality of relativity (how's that for an oxymoron!), gone are rational apologetics, and coming back are embodied apologetics (i.e. defending the faith by living as Jesus did). Creeds and Councils are in, as is mysticism and community. Editor David Bennett admits that Webber's writings helped lead him to the Catholic Church, although much of what Webber says is far too "cafeteria" in approach. Also, Church Tradition is treated more as an evangelical trend as opposed to what it is: the Truth. Nonetheless, Webber is a good transitional author. [27]

The Ancient and the Mystical

It seems that the “Emerging Church” is reemerging. However, rather than going back to the inspired Word of God found in the Old and New Testaments, the goal is to reintroduce an “Ancient-Future” faith based on the ideas, dogmas, traditions and views of the Roman Catholic Church Fathers.

Over the past number of years I have had the opportunity to travel the world speaking in various countries visiting many old churches that are dark and mystical. These churches were founded by the Roman Catholic or Orthodox Church many centuries ago.

In these churches I have observed, icons, statues of Mary holding baby Jesus, Jesus hanging on the cross, candles, incense, relics, and statues of the “saints.” While there is a lot of emphasis on the visual sensual and mystical, there is very little evidence that the Bible was ever taught to the people. If it had, there would not be an emphasis on extrabiblical paraphernalia, extra-sensory images, sounds and smells.


It appears to me the “Emerging Church” of the present era and the church that emerged after the New Testament was written are one and the same. Remember the words of Paul as recorded in the book of Acts:

For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. [28]

While Rick Warren, Dan Kimball and Dr. Robert Webber and others may be excited about the “Emerging Church” and the direction it is presently headed, I am concerned the “Emerging Church” may actually be a re-emergence of what has already occurred in church history. If the pattern continues expect to see evangelical Protestants become more and more Roman Catholic.


Will the Emerging Church Lead the Church to the Roman Catholic Church?

It is important to keep scripture in mind when we are looking for a method or a means to promote church growth. A Christianity that is not based on the Scriptures is a false Christianity. It may be ecumenical and it may be successful in attracting numbers, but it is not biblical. It could even lead people to believe they believe, but instead they follow false teachers and false doctrine and are deceived.

You know where they could spend eternity, separated from God!






[1] 2 Timothy 3: 16
[2] Revelation 22: 18-19
[3] Warren Smith, "Deceived on Purpose: The New Age Implications of the Purpose-Driven Church," Mountain Stream Press, Magalia, CA, p. 23, 24.
[4] Dan Kimball, The Emerging Church: Vintage Christianity for the New Generation, Zondervan, 2003, page 7.
[5] Ibid.
[6] 1 Timothy 4: 1 and 2 Timothy 4:3
[7] Dan Kimball, page 6.
[8] Ibid., pages 7-8.
[9] Ibid., pages 13-14.
[10] Ibid., page 127.
[11] Ibid., page 133.
[12] Ibid., page 143.
[13] Ibid., page 155.
[14] Ibid., page 171.
[15] Ibid., page 185.
[16] John 8: 31-32
[17] John 8: 43
[18] Dan Kimball, p. 185
[19] Ibid. p. 185
[20] www.seminary.edu/aboutnorthern/index.html
[21] Robert Webber, “Wanted Ancient-Future Talent,” Worship Leader, May/June 2005, p. 10
[22] Jordon Cooper interview with Dr. Webber, http://www.theooze.com/articles/article.cfm?id=385, posted December 11, 2003
[23] Ibid.
[24] Robert Webber, "Ancient-Future Evangelism: Making Your Church a Faith-Forming Community," Baker Books, page 114
[25] Julie B. Sevig, The Lutheran, “Ancient New, September 2001, http://www.thelutheran.org/0109/page36.html
[26] Ibid.
[27] http://www.ancient-future.net/apcbooks.html
[28] Acts 20: 29-30


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